App.net ready to take on Twitter

Twitter alternative App.net bills itself as a social network that welcomes all manner of third-party apps. These have proliferated, and include the popular Netbot (upper left) and Watercooler (lower right) the handiwork of Minnesota-based Troy Gaul. (Courtesy photo)

Twitter, for all its popularity, has annoyed a good many of its users.

Many of them use third-party applications to access the social network, but Twitter lately has been more restrictive in how such apps are allowed to tap into its tweet stream.

Besides, many users regard the service's 140-character limit per tweet as claustrophobic. And don't get them started on Twitter's ads.

Many of these users have fled to a rival service called App.net, which has no ads and has made a point of encouraging third-party-app development. Besides, users say, the more-generous limit of 256 characters per App.net post has led to better conversations.

"The level of discourse is deeper, richer, more fulfilling," said Patrick Rhone, a St. Paul-based tech consultant, author and blogger who interacts with many of his friends on the service.

App.net's app-developer welcome mat drew in Troy Gaul, a leading Twin Cities software author with a number of mobile apps to his name (see infinitapps.com). One of the latest is Watercooler, an iPhone app that can be used for access to App.net as well as Twitter.

Watercooler was something of a hit last year, partly because it was featured on Daring Fireball, the site of star tech writer and podcaster John Gruber.

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Watercooler downloads have diminished since then, but Gaul said he still is bullish on the project.

App.net is in the news this week because the service is announcing major changes that could propel it beyond niche Twitter-imitator status into a wider unique social-network role.

For starters, it announced it would give away 10 gigabytes of free storage to each of its users for uploading photos and other kinds of files -- an unorthodox move for a social network.

This, it said, would allow third-party developers to create photo-sharing apps, work-collaboration tools and other kinds of services that would tap into the service's new file-storage functionality along with user-to-user communication capabilities.

Gaul, for one, is already mulling how he will add photo uploading and sharing to his Watercooler app so users can go crazy with picture swapping.

Elliott Payne, who works at the space150 digital agency in Minneapolis, sees a crucial difference between Twitter and App.net.

Twitter "is a media company with their endgame centered on advertising," Payne said. "In contrast, App.net is a platform" for developers to exploit with minimal restriction and maximum versatility.

But even some hardcore App.net fanatics admit to being uncertain whether the service has legs.

For one thing, unlike Twitter, the service is not free. Users have to pay $5 a month or $36 a year. Developers pay $100 a year for the privilege of creating App.net- compatible apps or services.

Those who cherish the App.net environment are more than happy to pay, but there may not enough to assure the service a future. User Matt Griepentrog of White Bear Lake is skeptical.

"The file storage could end up being very useful," Griepentrog said. "At this point, however, I have very few followers on the service, so the idea of sharing those files with others will only make more sense if the service really takes off."

Michael Fraase of St. Paul was an early App.net user, "mostly because I was so frustrated with Twitter."

Now, the author and tech consultant said, "I still use Twitter regularly and App.net almost never."

Rhone, who has found App.net satisfying, recently tried cutting himself off from Twitter. That seemed reasonable, he said, since most of the people with whom he wants to communicate are on App.net.

He soon discovered leaving Twitter wasn't so easy. He couldn't properly drive traffic to his daily blog posts without the more-prominent service as his soapbox, for one thing.